Summer 2016 Anime Premieres: ReLIFE, Orange, Days, Momokuri

Change is the buzzword of the year for good reason, and even my anime watchlist isn’t spared. Some shows I’ve picked up still has no subs till now, and the chances that they’ll have are as low as HxH doing a continuous run. I did some last-minute dropping and slipping in between too, influenced by reviews from the early birds. Good thing I have fellow fans who know enough my taste to bug me to watch those I’ve missed out of my list.

Here’s four of the shows I’ve seen so far, and it looks like we’re off to a great start.

ReLIFE

In a shocking and bizarre move, ReLIFE has decided to release all of its 13 episodes worldwide through Crunchyroll. I’m actually perplexed why they did this, but I just read they really intended to, at least in the Japanese market through the manga’s original web platform (NHN cocoro).

As if this should be an issue because I’m hooked so much with ReLIFE that I’m so tempted to do a 6-hour marathon just to know what’s next. Luckily (or sadly?) I have a life to prevent me from doing so, unlike our main character who lives as a NEET even if he has a graduate degree.

Its pacing issues are my only qualm, but nevertheless it was interesting and refreshing to watch. I thought that ReLIFE could have worked better if they just slowed down with the narration or just made it a short altogether, but maybe the production just find it too taxing considering the straightforward nature of the webcomic.

Arata reminds me of Daisuga for some reason — weird, right? They’re both cute and adorable (especially that scene when he woke up after taking the drug, he looks like ready for the Trumpets challenge any minute.) Pardon me if my fujo self’s squealing with the Arata-Ryo ship. On a serious note, I could be relating to ReLIFE so much as it presents the challenges young adults face, as well as the gap between Arata and the current generation. Millenials are known to pander with nostalgia and ReLIFE would surely appeal to them, with its story of a guy being given a chance to (sort of) go back in time.

Orange

I’m glad I decided to pick up Orange even if the manga bored me. Anime has its magic as a medium and can definitely inject life into a story provided the right production staff, script and design.

Orange isn’t your typical shoujo due to the sci-fi aspect: the main character receives a letter from the past with a warning about the events to happen in her future, and a plea to change the course of her life. How the letter went into the past is puzzling, but we can simply ignore that so that it won’t get in the way in appreciating the series.

There’s so much to love with Orange anyway — the art style fitting into its time travel premise, with the use of saturation to emphasize that the scenes are in the past. The story also reminds me of Ao Haru Ride in presentation, what I call as “reverse shoujo” in which the guy is the one in need of saving, not the usual prince charming scenarios we see in girl-oriented narratives. Many viewers are picking it up with full knowledge of how it will end, but I’m holding myself off from checking it out — I’ll just let the manga work out its surprises.

Days

It may appear a innocent shounen about sports, friendship and teamwork but my fudanshi senses are hitting the roof. I’m so torn between being entertained and feeling gross with all the suggestive poses, as if this show’s produced specifically for the BL-loving crowd.

All we know for now is that it’s about football and a guy obsessed into joining his schools’ team to prove his love for his long-haired classmate…I dunno, that’s just how it appears to me. But filter out the innuendo and you will notice the similarities of the MC and Maruo of Baby Steps — both high schoolers with no experience in their respective sports, pulled away into it due to circumstance. Both of them have unbelievable perseverance to push their limits and they can catch up with experienced peers, too.

Momokuri

This is a classic case of not judging a book by its cover — I thank @solidad for convincing me to pick this up. Here we have a girl infatuated, if not obsessed with his younger boyfriend. She’s creepy, but admit it — our girlfriends can be like this in real life. (Reminds me of the Pinoy FB comic Little Things.)

The presentation spills its webcomic origins (it’s hosted on the same app as ReLIFE), but it’s easy to digest as the pacing’s just right. Note that it was originally aired as an ONA, so the TV episodes lined up are merged/edited versions of the ones already online.